The Vocational Interests of Hispanic, African American, and White Middle School Students

Relatively little is known about the vocational interests of middle school students, particularly those of minority students. In this study, the Strong Interest Inventory was administered to 570 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade students in an urban middle school. The major racial groups studied were African American, Hispanic, White, and Spanish Primary Language (SPL) students. Comparisons among racial groups indicated that Spanish Primary Language students expressed significantly higher interests on several of the General Occupational Themes when compared with Hispanic and White students.